1737 – 24 Westgate Street

But the death of Nicholas and his wife, Hester, did not herald the end of the Lane family’s problems with the property.  In 1727, Hester junior had married a man called Herbert Pyefinch who was a ‘gager’ in the Excise, and had moved with him to live in Presteigne in Radnorshire.  John Rodway, one of the two trustees had died leaving Richard Harding as the sole trustee of the property.  Richard Harding had sold the property to one Richard Elly, an attorney of Gloucester, and, with the proceeds, paid off Nicholas Lane’s remaining debts.  Herbert and Hester Pyefinch considered that they were entitled to £50 from the remaining funds. Since they had not received this money, they took Richard Harding to court.  He in turn challenged them in a Bill of Complaint to Chancery in 1736. No final orders have been located for this and it is assumed that the case was eventually settled out of court.

During the Chancery case, evidence was presented by one Peregrine Stockdale to the effect that Eustace Lane, a surgeon on the ship ‘The Berkeley Gally’, the youngest child of Nicholas and Hester Lane, had died on a voyage between Africa and Carolina around 1733, and that he, Stockdale,  had paid for his burial in South Carolina.  So that left only the three daughters of Nicholas and Hester Lane.  In 1737, after the Chancery case, the Lane Family no longer had an interest in 24 Westgate Street.